Proposed disclosure pilot in the Business and Property Courts

Last year, Sir Terence Etherton established a Disclosure Working Group in response to widespread concerns expressed by court users and the profession regarding the perceived excessive costs, scale and complexity of disclosure.

The working group has now put forward proposals to amend the rules surrounding disclosure and to test them within a mandatory pilot scheme in the Business and Property Courts.

Feedback on the proposals is being sought by 28 February 2018. The pilot scheme, if approved, would apply to the Business and Property Court centres in Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle and Liverpool as well as in London.

The proposed scheme is expected to be submitted to the Civil Procedure Rules Committee for review and approval in March/April 2018. As soon as reasonably practicable thereafter, the pilot will be published and commence.